2023 has hurtled by, and the new year is now in sight. Although the festive period is a wonderful time to take a break from your typical professional routine, it’s important that you remain especially vigilant around cyber risks at this time of year. Enjoy the opportunity to unwind but also take care that your more relaxed state of mind doesn’t lead to any lapses of judgment around common social engineering threats like phishing emails and smishing texts.

It’s also worth remembering that SMEs continue to be heavily targeted, given that not everyone has the budget of big corporates to invest in highly sophisticated cyber-frameworks.

Here is a quick refresh of some cyber-safe tips that may help:

• Enable multi-factor authentication on all work and personal applications that allow this, especially email, social media and banking;
• Manage your passwords securely – specialist password manager applications are an affordable option;
• Keep your IT update to date – 80 – 90% of successful ransomware compromises originated through unmanaged devices;
• Be vigilant around potential social engineering.

Interrelated to cyber-threats is scamming activity. In late November the ACCC ran “Scams Awareness Week” to raise awareness and highlight key facts such as:

• 5% of scams reported involve impersonation of a real organisation or person – so slow down and think about who you are really dealing with before acting;
• Scammers often impersonate trusted and well-known businesses, charities, law enforcement, colleagues or family/friends;
• Common channels utilised by scammers include SMS and other messaging apps, websites, social media, email or phone calls;
• Common tactics include urgent directions, requests to click on a link, threats of fines/penalties or enticing offers.

We can all guard against impersonation attempts by checking who we’re dealing with. How do you do that? Often the simplest way is to pick up the phone and call the person or organisation directly that is purportedly contacting you. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

We hope this information is useful to help protect your business, and can also be passed on to help those nearest and dearest to you. However you choose to celebrate or unwind, we wish all our members a most enjoyable festive season, and a prosperous new year.

Resources to help you protect your business

Cyber Security Hub

A resource centre filled with useful information including our tips on how to help reduce the risks of cyber threats. Visit now.

Learn Collection

On-demand cyber security education in Learn for you and your team to help protect your business. Explore now.